UCC leaders celebrate FCC caps on prison phone rates

United Church of Christ leaders and the denomination's media justice arm, the Office of Communication, Inc. (OC, Inc.) are celebrating a victory that was a decade in the making. A new rate cap on prison phone calls took effect on Tuesday, Feb. 11, giving UCC leaders and activists a chance to pause and celebrate the milestone.

The new rates will protect families, pastors, community members and others from expensive phone bills for calls to people in prison, jails or detention centers.

"When I went down there to speak publicly about the issue, I met with our friends at OC Inc. who told me some of harsh realities of prison phone rates," Black said. "The new commissioner of the FCC was there as well, and I felt like we had a chance to really make some progress with this. Now we see the result, and it’s a day to celebrate."

"Families are punished when a family member is incarcerated, and the family didn’t commit the crime," Black said. "Phone rates are an example of how that family is punished. It hampers their communication, but it also draws resources from people who don’t have much."

Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor for OC Inc., said "strong family connections improve the likelihood that when inmates are released, they will not become repeat offenders, and that makes our society safer."

Prison phone rates can be costly because prisons select telephone providers, and in some cases the provider that offers the largest payment to the prison obtains the right to offer service. Prisoners can only use the telephone company selected by the prison and the calls are billed collect to prisoner's families with rates as high as $0.89 per minute. According to OC Inc., the result was a $120 bill for a 15-minute weekly phone call.